St Fintan's calendar

Interpreting the Drumcondra test results

Last year the Department of Education and Science introduced Standardised testing for all children in 1st class and 4th class.The purpose of this is to obtain an overview of Maths and English standards throughout the country.

For the last number of years the children of St Fintan’s N.S. have been given standardised tests at the end of each year from 1st class to 6th class for the purpose of indentifying children who might need learning support.

Though mandatory for 1st to 4th classes we shall be informing the parents of all children tested of the results of these tests which were carried out during May.The tests administered were the Drumcondra test in English and Maths.Both these tests were designed for Irish children by The Drumcondra Education Research Centre and have been in use for many years in Irish Schools.

Interpreting the results of these tests can be done in various ways and we will be informing parents of the results giving the Standard score and STen score from these tests.Standard scores usually range from 55 to 145 with the average score being 100.STen scores are derived from Standard scores and give a ten point scale with 1 representing the lowest category and 10 the highest.

The following tables explain these:

Interpreting Standard Scores:

StandardScore RangeDescriptorCoverage

130 and aboveWell above average2% ofpupils

120-129Above average7% ofpupils

110-119High average16% ofpupils

90-109Average50% ofpupils

80-89Low average16% ofpupils

70-79Below average2% ofpupils

Below 70Well below average2% ofpupils

Interpreting STen Scores:

StandardScore RangeSTen Score RangeDescriptorCoverage

116 and above8-10Well above averageTop 1/6 of pupils

108-1147High average1/6 of pupils

93-1075-6averageMiddle 1/3 of pupils

85-924Low average1/6 of pupils

84 and below1-3Well below averageBottom 1/6 of pupils

Children may not always perform as well as expected in these tests for a variety of reasons e.g. exam fright, illness or poor form on the day, difficulty of working on their own for a long period etc.While important, the results from Standardised tests should not be taken in isolation and should be understood in conjunction with teacher observations, teacher designed tasks and tests and the child’s general progress.